Officials look into partial roof replacement at Harvey High School
Mar. 15—Painesville City School District officials are looking to replace flat portions of the Harvey High School roof to address the building's roof leaks.
District Operations Director Ivan Salgado addressed the school board on March 11 about replacing parts of the nearly 15-year-old roof, which has been repaired multiple times. He estimated that a new flat roof would cost between $300,000 and $500,000 if there are "minimal" costs related to insulation.
Salgado said that the Ohio Schools Council has provided a consultant to the district to review the roof and determine the scope of work for replacing it. The district will pay for an infrared scan to determine if there is trapped water and if any insulation needs to be replaced.
"In a lot of these jobs, the insulation is what becomes very expensive to replace," Salgado said.
He said that the replacement would be similar to the existing "plastic-like membrane" and that it should last for 15 or 20 years, though it could be less.
The alternative would be to switch to a pitched roof, which Salgado said could be "well over $1 million."
He said that there were "probably a good dozen repairs" to the roof before he joined the district in January 2022. There were "a handful of roof leaks" in his first six to eight months, and "three or four instances where we had water coming through the building."
Sections of the roof were repaired in the summer of 2023 after an inspection found impact damage, Salgado said. Some of the repairs were under warranty, while the school district paid around $20,000 to $25,000 for other repairs.
Salgado believes that the work in 2023 dealt with "95 percent of what we were dealing with before," but added that the building has still had "probably a dozen or so leaks" since then.
The school's roof is divided into five sections, he said. Three of them are sloped and two are flat, and the flat sections are the areas of concern. They include the roofs over the gym, cafeteria and art wing.
"One of the major concerns is obviously the gym, being that we have the athletic department playing basketball, sports events in there," Salgado added. "From June 2023 till now, we've had to postpone some games, move some games to other venues."
He said that it can be hard to find leaks in flat roofs. The water may be visible in a different part of the building from where the roof is damaged, and hairline cracks may be difficult to see.
Salgado said that he believes the work will take two or three weeks. He hopes to start in June or July.
